Abu Snan

Abu Snan (Arabic: أبو سنان, romanized: Abū Sinān, Hebrew: אַבּוּ סְנָן) is an Arab village and locality in the Galilee, part of the Northern District of Israel. With an area of 4,750 dunams (4.75 km²). It acquired recognition as an independent local council in 1964. It is a religiously-mixed village of Arabs, with a Muslim majority, along with sizable Druze and Arab-Christian minorities. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), in 2024 Abu Snan had a total population of 14,542. In 2022, 54.9% of the population was Muslim, 30.3% was Druze and 14.8% was Christian. History Abu Snan is an ancient village site, where old dressed stones have been reused in modern houses. Graves, oil or vine-presses, and cisterns have been found cut in rock. Crusaders In about 1250 Abu Snan is noted as a casale of the Teutonic Knights, called Busnen. Under the name Tusyan, probably a corruption of Busenan, Abu Snan was mentioned as part of the domain of the Crusaders during the hudna between the Crusaders based in Acre and the Mamluk sultan Qalawun declared in 1283. No Crusader remains have yet been identified in the village. Ottoman Empire In 1517, Abu Snan was with the rest of Palestine incorporated into the Ottoman Empire after it was captured from the Mamluks, and by 1548–1549 or 1596, it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as part of the Nahiya of Acre of the Liwa of Safed. It had a population of 102 households and 3 bachelors, all Muslims. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, olive trees, sesame, cotton, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 7,600 akçe. Abu Snan was among several cotton-growing villages in the Sahil Akka (plain of Acre) muqata'a (fiscal district) under the control of local tax farmer Sheikh Najm in the first decade of the 18th century. The village is later mentioned as a dependency of the Jiddin fortress under Najm's relative Ahmad ibn Husayn and came under the control of another local strongman, Daher al-Umar, when he captured Jiddin in 1738. The Italian traveler Giovanni Mariti visited the area in 1761 and noted Abu Sinan produced "an abundance of cotton". After Daher was eliminated by the Ottomans in 1775 and Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar was appointed governor in Acre, Abu Snan was one of the main fortified villages held by Daher's son Ali. In 1776, the village's men took part in Ali's abortive raid against al-Jazzar's forces at Amqa. Al-Jazzar's forces afterward attacked and subdued Abu Sinan before proceeding against Ali's other strongholds. A map by Pierre Jacotin from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named as Abou Senan. When French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in 1875, he estimated the population of Abu Snan to be 400, of whom 260 were Druzes and 140 Greek Orthodox Christians. Guérin also wrote that based on the rock-cut cisterns and old cut-stones incorporated in the buildings, it was an ancient place. Fragments from an older building were used in a chapel for St. George. In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Abu Snan as a stone-built village situated on the low hill near the plain, surrounded by olive groves and arable land, and with many cisterns of rainwater. The population consisted of 150 Christians and 100 Muslims. A population list from about 1887 showed that Abu Snan had about 565 inhabitants; two thirds Druze, one third Greek Catholic Christians. British Mandate In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Abu Snan had a total population of 518. Of these, 43 were Muslim, 228 Druzes and 247 Christians. Of Abu Snan's 247 Christians, 196 were Orthodox, 44 Roman Catholics, and 4 Melkites and 3 Maronites. In the 1931 census it had increased to a population of 605, in 102 inhabited houses. Of these, 20 were Muslim, 274 Christians, and 311 Druzes. In the 1945 statistics the population of Abu Snan was 820; 30 Muslims, 380 Christians and 410 other Arabs, and the land area was a total of 13,043 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. 2,172 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 7,933 used for cereals, while 69 dunams were built-up (urban) land. Israel In 2003 the local council was merged with its neighboring towns. The next year this was undone. Demographics Abu Snan had a population of 13,000 (2014), 7,000 of whom are Muslim, 4,000 Druze, and 2,000 Christian. Notable residents Ashraf Brik Yusef Mishleb See also Arab localities in Israel Druze in Israel References Bibliography External links Welcome To Abu Sinan Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3: IAA, Wikimedia commons